


Stronger Than You Think

by maria_eshu



Series: Gems - Between the Lines [1]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Other, Steven Universe References
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-15
Updated: 2017-05-15
Packaged: 2018-11-01 05:35:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10915380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maria_eshu/pseuds/maria_eshu
Summary: Peridot and Lapis fusion! Some light romance ;)





	Stronger Than You Think

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place after Episode 102 Earthlings, and during episode 103 Back to the Moon. The events and conversations in this story happen on Earth, while the Crystal Gems are dealing with the Rubies at the Moonbase. Peridot and Lapis are left behind to their own devices.

  _Clods._

 

Peridot paced in the lower level of the barn, the oppressive silence of the otherwise empty building grated on her nerves.

 _Those clods never know what they’re doing._ She thought. _They never even have a plan. Amethyst can’t hold Jasper’s form all the way to the moon. If they battle the Rubies in space, they’ll probably end up stranded on the moon, or floating around in the eternal abyss. Can Pearl even fly a redeye ship?_ She glanced up towards the silo, which stuck out of the barn at an odd angle.

            “At least,” she said aloud, “Lapis didn’t go with them on this pebble-headed mission.”

            Peridot stared at the underside of the silo for another moment, her mind shifting from the Crystal Gems and their latest ridiculous escapade to her roommate who had flown to the silo top and remained there since the others had left.

            “Hey, Lapis!” She shouted. There was no response, but she knew Lapis Lazuli was there.

            “Hey, Lapis!” She shouted again. “HEY, LAPIS!”

            “Uhg, what?” Lapis finally replied.

            “You okay?” Peridot called back.

            “Fine.” Lapis said.

            Peridot resumed her pacing. “Hm,” she grunted, rubbing her chin. “Statistically speaking, her response of ‘fine’ most likely implies the opposite.”

            Peridot paused, then nodded, satisfied with her chosen course of action. She pried open the bottom edge of the silo, climbing inside and clambering up the ladder that ran the entire height of the structures. When she emerged, she found Lapis sitting and staring into the distance, much as she’d surmised. The gem sat with her back to Peridot, her watery wings and blue hair rippling in the breeze.

            Peridot scrambled out of the hatch onto the roof, and immediately slipped, her feet shooting out from under her, as she slammed down on her back onto the curved metal roof. She cursed, grabbing the edge of the open hatch, then inching slowly over to Lapis, who hadn’t so much as looked at her.

            “Are you worried about Steven?” Peridot asked Lapis, settling down next to her, but at a respectful distance.

            “No.” Lapis replied. “He’s not alone, and the Rubies aren’t very smart.”

            “Ha!” Peridot scoffed, “You can say that again.”

            “Why?” Lapis asked with indifference.

            “Uh,” Peridot thought for a moment, “Never mind. What’s the problem then?”

            Lapis was silent for a moment, her hair still hiding her face. “Garnet and Pearl were going after Jasper, they didn’t have any luck finding her. She’s out there somewhere.”

            “Well, of course _they_ didn’t find her.” Peridot replied, “She was in the Beta Kindergarten. They went entirely the wrong direction.”

            Lapis turned to face her, her eyes widening. “You saw her? Did she see you?” Lapis asked, her usual cool façade cracking. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

            “Well,” Peridot began, “everyone was a little busy winging it with the Rubies. I don’t know why they didn’t just dissipate and bubble them.”

            Lapis glared at Peridot. “What happened in the Kindergarten?”

            Peridot grinned. “We found Jasper there with her army of corrupted gems, then Steven and Amethyst had a moment, and I defeated Jasper.”

            Lapis blinked, staring at the shorter gem. “You?” She said, incredulous. “You, a Peridot, defeated Jasper, on your own?”

            “Yes.” Peridot said. “Steven will corroborate. I used my metal powers!”

            “And it was my Jasper?” Lapis asked, her voice faint. “Not another sent by Homeworld?”

            “Affirmative.” Peridot nodded. “She’s been bubbled and is out of the way. Aren’t you going to ask about Steven and Amethyst’s moment?”

            “No.” Lapis stood, shielding her eyes and looking up towards the sky as if she expected the Rubies’ ship to appear any moment. She spread her wings, the droplets of water surging, tense. She looked as if she might fly off, but she didn’t. After a moment, she sat back down.

            “Have you ever fused?” Lapis asked.

            “Of course not!” Peridot scoffed, “I don’t need to fuse, I’m already strong enough, and getting stronger, which is evidenced in exactly how I took out Jasper-”

            “I don’t want to talk about Jasper.” Lapis said, her hair falling forward again over her eyes.

            Peridot almost continued, but she hesitated. _Lapis always shuts down when Jasper is the subject._ She thought. _Yet she always talks about things that relate to Jasper._

“Well, what do you want to talk about?” Peridot asked.

            “Nothing.” Lapis replied.

            _She’s the one asking about fusing!_ The thought hung on Peridot’s mind for a moment.

“Garnet offered to fuse with me once.” Peridot said, deciding to ignore Lapis Lazuli’s terse demeanor.

            Lapis didn’t reply, but she did look at Peridot with what might have passed for curiosity.

            _Or perhaps disbelief._ Peridot thought wryly.

            “Yes,” Peridot said, “We tried it, but it didn’t work. I blame the inferior leg enhancements. Earth technology, as always, is so inadequate.”

            Lapis shuddered and turned away. “I can’t imagine ever fusing again.” She said. “Or why you would even want to.”

            “I actually don’t.” Peridot explained. _Steven says the best way to get others to open up is to open up to them,_ she thought. “I don’t care about fusing at all.” She continued. “I just want to know if I even can. You know, in case there’s an emergency and I need to. There’s always emergencies.”

            “All gems can fuse.” Lapis said.

            “All gems have powers,” Peridot retorted, “I’m from facet 2F5L, I was cut with precision, but I am a newer generation Peridot, we aren’t supposed to have powers. Maybe we aren’t supposed to be able to fuse either.”

            “But you do have powers.” Lapis pointed out.

            “Yes, but I didn’t know that when Garnet asked me to fuse.” Peridot replied. “Besides, as a Crystal Gem I need to know all my strengths, to help the team. You already know your strengths, you’ve been around a lot longer. You’re the strongest one of us! And I’m…well probably the weakest.”

            “I’m not sure I’m ‘one of us’.” Lapis sighed. “I’m not sure I want to be.”

            “Well,” Peridot shrugged, “If you even want to try fusion, I’d do it with you. I wouldn’t tell anyone.”

            Lapis stood suddenly, her wings flaring out. “Why would you say that? I never want to feel like that again.” She said, “Fusing was horrible!”

            “I don’t think what you did with Jasper was really fusion.” Peridot said. “It’s not horrible for Garnet, or for Stevonnie. Or for Smokey Quartz.”

            “Who’s Smokey Quartz?” Lapis asked, her balled up fists relaxing a bit.

            “I told you.” Peridot said dryly, “Steven and Amethyst had a moment.”

            “If Malachite wasn’t a fusion, what was she?” Lapis asked, her wings lowering.

Peridot shrugged again. “I don’t know.” She said. “Jasper put you in a terrible position, they made fusing the only thing you could choose. It’s not a choice if there’s only one option. Of course, Malachite was unhealthy, unstable, you were constantly fighting Jasper for control, and when you gave in, you were affected by Jasper’s corruption.”

            “Corruption?” Lapis said. “What do you mean by that?”

            “Before I defeated Jasper she started to…” Peridot winced, thinking of it. “change. Jasper’s corruption began before that though. I theorize that their rage and need for vengeance and their defeats and failures twisted her mind. I wasn’t there when you first became Malachite, but I’ve heard the stories. And I know you. You might be cranky, but you aren’t evil. You’d never hurt Steven. You went through months of hell to protect him. That’s not evil!”

            “Jasper is a corrupted Gem?” Lapis asked, looking a bit sick. “Like the monsters that Steven fights?”

            “Gross, right? I could tell something was off about them when we first met on Homeworld. Didn’t you feel it in them when you were fused?” Peridot asked.

            Lapis took a step back. “Maybe.” She said. “She has so much rage about Pink Diamond, and shame over her failure, over being from Earth. She was unstable.” Her wings expanded again and seemed to grow as they did right before she took flight. Peridot could feel the moisture being sucked out of the air around her.

            _It’s so incredible how she does that._ Peridot thought. _What would it be like to be part of that kind of power?_

“I’m unstable too.” Lapis said darkly.

            “It’s different.” Peridot tried to assure her.

            “Is it?” Lapis asked. “I have so much anger…at Homeworld…at Pearl. As for shame… what I did as Malachite, and before that when my gem was cracked and I was trying to escape.”

            “Yeah, but your different now!” Peridot exclaimed. “You say you’re not really a Crystal Gem, but you act like one! You protect Steven, you fight with us, you protected me from the Rubies when they first came, you even water bubbled them just now! Jasper couldn’t let go of her failures, of all her bad feelings.”

            “Neither can I!” Lapis exclaimed, her face transfixed in a stubborn mask of rage. “I don’t really care about Amethyst or Garnet, but the only reason I don’t destroy Pearl is because it would hurt Steven. She held me captive for thousands of years, she knew! She…she knew I was in there…How do you know I’m not corrupted too?”

            “Hey, I get it. Pearl can be hard to like.” Peridot said, trying to brush off Lapis’s concern. “But I could feel the corruption in Jasper, I don’t sense that in you. And Steven healed you once, if you had any corruption in you, it’s gone now.”

            “How do you know?” Lapis said. “Malachite was just as much me as she was Jasper. Jasper may have had issues, but maybe she corrupted because she was fused with me. She knew I was a monster. She told me she was the only one who could handle my kind of power, but maybe she couldn’t handle it.”

            Peridot stood up reaching a hand towards Lapis. “Fuse with me.” She said. “We won’t be evil, and I’ll prove to you that you aren’t corrupted.”

            “Aren’t you afraid of me?” Lapis said incredulously. “I just told you-”

            “I’m the ultimate Peridot, I took down a Quartz warrior. I have metal powers!” Peridot said dramatically, grinning broadly. “I don’t know this ‘fear’ you speak of!”

            Lapis looked at her critically for a moment then laughed, snorting a little and covering her mouth with one hand.

            “Come on.” Lapis said then, taking Peridot’s out-stretched hand. She launched into the sky, pulling Peridot with her.

            _Oh my gosh,_ Peridot thought. _Flying! We’re flying! Without a ship!_

The barn seemed small beneath her, the silo even smaller. They rocketed upward, and Peridot turned away from the earth, and looking into the sky. It was mostly a clear day, but thin clouds streamed in whisps around them, swirling and surrounding them, trailing after like a long cloak.

            “You’re pulling in the clouds!” Peridot observed, her voice ripped away by the wind. Lapis brought them to a stop hover in the sky with a thin mist swirling around them. Droplets formed and beaded on her skin, and her face. Her wings moved just enough to keep the two of them afloat.

            “Wow.” Peridot said as she watched the droplets float up from Lapis’s skin as more formed.

            Lapis was looking up, past Peridot at the vast sky. “The view is pretty amazing, isn’t it?”

            Peridot flushed, “Uh, yeah. It is.” She said, transfixed.

            “This is my favorite layer of the atmosphere, plenty of air and water. It’s perfect.” Lapis said. “I’ve considered building a home up here.” Lapis finally looked back at Peridot and noticed her expression.

            “What?” She asked, worriedly. “is something wrong?”

            “No.” Peridot said. “You’re perfect. I mean, everything’s perfect. It's fine.”

            “Do you still want to try fusing?” Lapis asked.

            “Sure.” Peridot said. _Of course I do!_ She thought, _Ah! She’s moving me, she’s…_

            Lapis pulled Peridot close, wrapping her arms around her. Peridot pushed down her nervousness and placed a hand on Lapis’s waist, and the other she put tentatively on the back of Lapis’s neck. They were face to face, and Lapis’s gaze held Peridot’s intensely.

            “When will we unfuse?” Lapis asked. “What if I change my mind, if I don’t like it?”

            “We can stop whenever you want.” Peridot said, then she glanced down at the earth below. “Just don’t drop me.”

            Lapis seemed to be making a choice still, but after a moment she pumped her wings launching them up and to the side, they began to tip downward, spiraling. Lapis pulled the clouds in close, obscuring Peridot’s view of anything outside of herself.

            The clouds rushed around them and Peridot had the distinct feeling they were falling. She looked at Lapis, about to ask, a saw tears in her eyes not from condensation. Lapis seemed stuck between desire and fear. On impulse Peridot pulled forward, her lips touching Lapis’s, and everything vanished into a bright blinding light.

 

 _Form._ Peridot thought, as she felt her formlessness.

 _Form._ Peridot heard Lapis, disembodied.

 _Let’s form._ They thought, an agreement reached, and the blinding light began to draw inward, coalescing into her form, their form.

 

The clouds fell away and the ground rushed towards them. She spread her wings, slowing her descent, then catching an updraft she shot back up into the sky.

            _I lost Peridot!_

_I’m right here!_

_Where?_

_We’re here, we’ve formed._

_We’ve fused._

_What are we? What am I now?_

_This isn’t Malachite._

She looked down at herself. _This isn’t Malachite. I’m not Malachite. Of course, I’m not Malachite!_ She laughed, her laugh filling the sky with bright electric sparks.

            “Whoa!” She held her hands, four of them, in front of her and watch the electricity dance between her fingers. They were a deep blueish green, she found that all of her skin was that color.

She felt the energy building between her hands, and she understood. The dance of the hot and cold air currents, the water, the electrostatic charge amplified by her metal powers, she could direct it anywhere. She pushed one hand out tentatively, and the electricity formed around it, growing until it was a giant hand, like Lapis’s water forms, except shot through with lightning like veins in a human hand.

            It felt good. It felt powerful. It felt familiar, similar to her wings. _My wings!_ She looked back at her wings, which were far vaster than she had expected, the droplets of water that made them up held together by little lines of electricity.

            _Lightning and water wings._ She flapped them once, gaining incredible altitude and hearing thunder snap around her. Clouds formed, roiling and grey at her feet, seeming to propel her higher. She could feel her gems, the Lapis Lazuli in her back, the Peridot in her forehead, both glowing. She understood the storm she was creating, knew it was too dangerous to be over land. She soared out towards the sea, taking her storm with her, drawing water from ocean into her clouds, letting lighting blast and reveling the rumble of thunder.

            “So much power!” she exclaimed. “So much control! And I understand it all so perfectly, Ha! That’s parts Peridot, Lapis feels, Peridot examines. This is amazing! I’m…” She grasped for a name.

            With a flick of all four of her wrists, she dispelled the storm. She discharged her wings, lowering the amount of electricity they held, letting it crackle out around her into the dispersing clouds.

            “Let’s go home.” She said, a smile on her lips. She soared back towards the shore, finding the barn quickly. She landed next to the silo and sat for a moment, feeling everything that she was, feeling Peridot and Lapis Lazuli inside of her, feeling the blurred lines between them as they began to understand their fusion.

            “Tourmaline.” She said softly, smiling.

            “Let’s unfuse now.” She added.

            The light within them glowed, growing until their gems feel loose of their form, gently circling each other before separating and forming on their own.

 

            Peridot looked up at Lapis, who looked down at her, surprise on her face.

“You didn’t want to unfuse.” Lapis said.

“That’s okay,” Peridot exclaimed, “we can do it some other time. That was amazing!”

            “You didn’t want to unfuse, but you did anyway. Why?” Lapis asked.

            Peridot blinked up at her. “I would never try to trap or force-”

            “You kept me prisoner once before.” Lapis interrupted, but her voice didn’t hold the accusation it once had when she spoke those words, just confusion, curiosity.

            “That’s when I worked for Homeworld! I was following orders.” Peridot said, holding her hands up defensively. “I don’t follow orders anymore. I just do what feels right. But for what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

            After a long moment Lapis smiled. “I feel…better." She said. "Thanks. For the talk, for Jasper, for Tourmaline…all of it.”

            “No prob, Bob.” Peridot said, flashing a thumbs-up.

            Lapis laughed. “You know, Peridot, you’re stronger than you think.”

            Peridot flushed and shrugged. “So are you.”


End file.
